*Although the official title of the competition is 'First Flight', we will be using the title 'Midnight Flight' instead to aid your understanding.
From calm, blue stillness to fierce red waves, twilight condenses all the energy of the cosmos. The submissions for this year’s Midnight Flight(First Flight) competition offered a feast for the senses. I had the great fortune to see 183 animated films, each with its own unique sense of twilight. However, the members of the jury also had the difficult task of choosing just 25 finalists from among these submissions.
The creative language of cinema differs for each of us from our everyday language, making it difficult to make presumptions or judge one film’s excellence over another. Sometimes, it is like presenting a variety of foods and performances to someone living in outer space.
Someone once said that short films are like a brief love letter to the audience. As the first viewers for these films, we were captivated by each of the love letters that were sent from the distant reaches of another person’s twilight. Yet the moments when the jurors fell in love with the same film were few and far between. More often, our opinions diverged and required use to spend a long time before we agreed upon the selection. It is a reminder of the unique life and energy found in each animated film.
Many of the animations showed the artists' efforts to look beyond their own subjective inquiry and imagery to find empathy with family, friends, pets, and other forms of life. As the years pass, we see a deeper sense of feeling and more well-developed craft. However, we noted that few of the submissions explored more varied techniques to stimulate our senses, dealt with current issues, or presented a bold consciousness of the challenges facing society.
While some filmmakers exceeded their own original purpose and created more powerful and meaningful works, others had solid concepts that were somewhat wanting in their direction and technical execution. Nevertheless, we were greatly inspired by the numerous animated films that flew freely beyond well-charted paths. Animation filmmakers rely on prior planning to predict challenges in their productions, much like pilots using radar to avoid obstacles. This sometimes forces them to follow predetermined routes, but the bold pilots charting their own midnight flights will captivate the audiences that fly alongside them.
The members of the jury wish to give encouragement not only to the filmmakers whose works will be enjoyed by the audience at Indie-AniFest but also those directors who are preparing to set out on a new flight or are taking a brief respite before their next journey. We hope they do not hesitate for lack of fuel or the warning lights on their radar display. We wish for many more directors to go beyond a brief flight and find their own means of soaring across great distances. In the future, we hope to see new filmmakers charting their own courses with a fiery passion that guides them toward a new dawn.
First Flight Pre-selection Committee: SONG Shi-hyeong, JUNG Minyung, CHOO Jinny HyeJin
Statement written by JUNG Minyung
